The French National Assembly on Friday voted to sanction a lawmaker with a rare 15-day suspension and pay cut after he yelled “back to Africa” at a black colleague, a clash that drew outrage across the political spectrum.
Gregoire de Fournas, a newly elected member of the National Rally (RN), has denied any personal racist attack in the outburst, saying he was referring to a ship carrying rescued migrants in the Mediterranean.
The penalty urged by the council of the lower-house National Assembly is the harshest possible under its rules, which broadly uphold free speech for lawmakers while in session.
Photo: AFP
It was only the second time in the history of France’s Fifth Republic, established by former French president Charles de Gaulle in 1958, that a lawmaker had received such a rebuke.
The incident came as tensions over immigration are running high, with French President Emmanuel Macron’s government promising a new crackdown amid accusations of failing to stem new arrivals or deport those whose residency requests are denied.
Carlos Martens Bilongo of the leftist France Unbowed was on Thursday questioning the government on a request by the SOS Mediterranee non-governmental organization for Paris’ help in finding a port for a ship that rescued 234 migrants at sea in the past few days.
“It should go back to Africa,” said De Fournas, a winegrower from the southwestern Gironde department, drawing gasps of shock from many in parliament.
In French, the pronunciation of the pronouns “it” and “he” are the same, which suggested to some that De Fournas was targeting Bilongo directly.
“Racism, no matter its target, is a negation of the republican values that unite us in this assembly,” National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet said after the vote.
The punishment comes as the National Rally was yesterday to vote on a successor to leader Marine Le Pen, who backed De Fournas on Twitter, writing that “the controversy created by our political opponents is obvious and will not fool the French people”.
Le Pen has been working for years to shed her party’s extremist views and prove it can unite voters and govern as a mainstream party.
Le Pen challenged Macron in this year’s presidential election and then led her party to its best-ever performance in legislative elections, with 89 lawmakers.
While acknowledging a “gaffe” by De Fournas, she told reporters on Friday that “if a comment that lacks finesse justifies a suspension from parliament, there’s room for plenty of others” in the assembly.
De Fournas, who left the chamber immediately after the vote, wrote on Twitter that he is “totally innocent ... but respectful of the institution, and I accept” its decision.
Bilongo told BFM TV that “I have always been deeply convinced the RN is racist, and this only proves it once again.”
Twenty-seven-year-old Jordan Bardella was the overwhelming favorite to win the party leadership yesterday over his only rival Louis Aliot, a party veteran and former partner of Le Pen.
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